Chief Medical Officer Says Drug Addiction Is Not A Criminal Issue

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• 19 Aug

  Professor Dame Sally Davies, England's chief medical officer expressed her concern on how the society treats drug addiction as a criminal justice issue.

  

  She said:

  "Of course it's a medical problem, I mean addiction is a medical problem, and it becomes a public health problem and then our society is choosing to treat that as a criminal justice issue."

  Davies further gave the BBC a brief synopsis of her university days in the 1970's:

  "I never smoked so I couldn't smoke joints but I did have some cookies, until on the third or fourth occasion I had hallucinations and I've never touched it since.

  "And I think I understood through that what my father said to me when I told him I was going to try it. He said: 'Drugs decivilise you. You stop being a civilised person.'

  "And I understood why so many people were against even the soft drugs. So, like the fact I do enjoy wine, I'm open about my past."

  According to reports by the Guardian, a Department of Health spokesman also said:

  "Drugs ruin lives and cause misery to families and communities and this government is committed to breaking the cycle of drug and alcohol dependency.

  "The UK approach is to consider drug use as both a health and criminal issue and so the CMO is not saying anything new."

  Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1120380

  By Abimbola Duro-David

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